He wrote and illustrated these picture books as well as Fables, a 1981 Caldecott Medal winner for best-illustrated U.S. Their father loved animation-he dragged Adrianne to see Bambi when she was 2 (too young) and Adam to see Pinocchio when he was 14 (too old)-and Adam thinks he would have been happy to see his creatures in moving form.Arnold Stark Lobel (– December 4, 1987) was an American author of children's books, including the Frog and Toad series and Mouse Soup. They may be universal concepts, but they’re little.” (Some may argue that one original story in episode 3, “Dragons and Giants,” is, in fact, a swashbuckling adventure, but the point still holds.)Īdam says he is frankly amazed that the creative team-including head writer and executive producer Rob Hoegee-managed to craft 11 minutes of animation out of each roughly 12-page story.

“They’re not big, swashbuckling adventures. To the siblings, the smaller format of TV feels more true to the books each short story is already a self-contained episode. But they worried about their father’s involvement being forgotten and Frog and Toad meeting a similar fate as Shrek-the popularity of the movie Shrek has largely eclipsed the children’s book it’s based on, Shrek! by William Steig. Adrianne previously commissioned a Broadway musical about the characters, called A Year with Frog and Toad. How Frog and Toad made it to TVīefore landing on the show, the siblings had considered making Frog and Toad into a feature film. It’s an earworm song-one that’s easy to imagine kids requesting again and again. “That was what his brilliance was,” Adrianne says, “in making these tiny stories so absolutely complete.” It’s a sweet metaphor, perhaps, about tenacity-but also, as Lobel always made Frog and Toad, about the value of friendship. “That thing is Toad!” Toad falls into the pond and the ice cream washes away, but all’s well that ends well: The friends run back to the store, buy two new cones, and eat them contentedly in the shade. Except it’s too hot: The ice cream melts all over Toad, and the cones stick to the top of his head, creating the illusion of horns.Ī mouse, a squirrel, and a rabbit all briefly warn Frog about the big, brown monster headed his way. And off Toad goes to the ice cream store, where he buys two chocolate ice cream cones (their favorite), and tries his best to bring them back. “I wish we had some sweet, cold ice cream,” says Frog. In the book, Frog and Toad are sitting by a pond on a hot summer day. Take, for example, “Ice Cream,” a delicious tale from Frog and Toad All Year. And the stories involving Frog, Toad, and the woodland creatures they encounter satisfy on several levels.

Fables lobel